Baltimore: 34th St Christmas Lights

Wandering around the Internet one day looking for things not to miss while we're out here, I ran across a list of holiday-only events. I got really excited about this one because a) it seemed kind of random and b) it looked really cool. Literally no one I talked to about it had ever heard of it, despite it being packed the night we went, which was a weeknight!

Basically, the 34th St Christmas Lights are a Christmas tradition for this street, and have been for several decades. Everyone who lives in this certain stretch decorates all out for Christmas, and it is quite the sight to see. There are so many lights, inflatables, trees, art and decor made out of records and hubcaps, Santas, lights, random other decorations, Baltimore-themed decorations, and did I mention lights?

It is absolutely worth going if you live near the area. We live about 30 minutes south of Baltimore, so we picked up a couple of friends who live near the Baltimore Inner Harbor and drove over (it was about a 25 minute drive from Federal Hill). Parking is basically "find somewhere on the street", and we wound up parking in the post office lot a couple blocks down, since it was at night and no one would be needing those spaces at the post office.

This hubcap tree is infamous. Even one of the blogs at the National Geographic mentions it. The house that goes along with this tree is also an open house, where the artist who lives here shows off his (very) cool and interesting metal work for sale.

A few other houses had a partial open house, where you could look inside the front door.

We also found this gem a few streets away. This house was decked out in a Nightmare Before Christmas theme...and the lights were set to music. I had never seen lights set to music in real life before, and we just stood out in front of it for several minutes watching. It was pretty awesome!